High Speed Internet

Hi, I moved to Stanley Bridge PEI six months ago. Not sure if this is the right place to raise this issue but it’s worth a try. We are currently on DSL Internet with Bell Aliant and was hoping to eventually have access to the High Speed Fibre which is running on our road on Rattenbury Road. I spoke to a good source from Bell and they told me that Bell has no intention of running Fibre to any home off Rattenbury Road except for the subdivision 2 KM down the road. Can you please inquire on why Residents on Rattenbury Road is not getting this service.

Response

This is an issue that has been raised by many people on Rattenbury Road. I spoke with a couple of people at Bell, and as you might expect it all has to do with cost.

The “Granville on the Water” subdivision has no copper lines that could be used for DSL. The residents are currently being provided with high speed internet from Bell – as mandated by their agreement with the PEI government – via their “MiFi” wireless solution that uses mobile phone technology. MiFi costs Bell a lot because they have to take the equivalent of a mobile phone bill that would have data charges sometimes in the thousands of dollars and offer it to people at DSL prices (less than ~$60/month) because of their agreement with the government of PEI. Bell considers this subdivision as “greenfield” (new) development and meets their business case calculations to install FibreOp when they take into account the money they are losing on MiFi. The high speed internet bills of the people in this subdivision will increase, but they will receive fast FibreOp high speed internet, and Bell will make money (or lose less).

To get FibreOp to the subdivision Bell needs to run “feeder fibre” down Rattenbury Road from the “Central Office” (CO) switch in the area. To connect homes on and near Rattenbury Road to this “feeder fibre” requires installing switch boxes and then running FibreOp lines from the switch boxes direct to each home. When Bell does its calculation of the cost to install switch boxes and run fibre to each home their business case fails – they don’t make money. Their is no additional incentive for Bell to switch their DSL high speed customers to FibreOp because this service is already in place and meeting their contract (“up to 1.5 Mbps”) with the PEI government.

So, that’s why Bell will not install FibreOp for people near the “feeder fibre” that is being run down Rattenbury Road. In fact my guess is that there are “feeder fibre” lines in many places on PEI that Bell could connect people to – but because DSL meets their contractual obligations to the PEI government there is no incentive for them to spend the additional money to make this happen. The Liberal PEI government negotiated a bad contract with Bell, and then extended it, and now Islanders are paying the price with slow internet access.

The good news is that various other ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are expanding throughout PEI in 2017 with the promise of providing high speed internet services with speeds of 5 Mbps download and upload or better. In the Rattenbury Road area it looks like the Xplornet ISP will have a 5 Mbps up/down high speed internet solution available to you some time in 2017 (beware that their current satellite-based service is nowhere near this fast). Also local PEI ISP “Wicked Eh?” will hopefully expand to the area – but not likely until at least 2018 at this time.

The official response from Bell is:

The fibre cable we are installing along the road is a transport cable designed to connect our facilities. It will provide Internet congestion relief to the Stanley Bridge area and allow for the expansion of our Fibe service to Granville on the Water. As a new development with the appropriate density, we were able to make a business case for this Fibe expansion. However, to expand Fibe to customers in the area of Rattenbury Road we would have to double back with a Fibe distribution cable in addition to the equipment necessary to provide the service – we estimate this would be in the vicinity of $250K to do the neighbourhood properly. At this point we do not have any plans to expand service to that area.

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Comments

Thanks for the prompt response. It’s too bad that all PEI Residents can not have access to all the up to date communication technology. I guess it all comes down to money. Something that bell is not lacking of. Cheers….

almost a reason but not good enough they want to be the internet of the people they need to get to all the Island people we lived west of Summerside before, not far west trust me just beyond Linkletter Provincial park beach road, and we had to contract a private enterprise to give us internet and try as privates go they will never get the affordability the big one has and the big one told us several yrs ago that our road area was not in their budget for several more yrs, my son now owns that home and he is still with the private guy who can’t keep his towers as strong as they need to be but it is better than nothing so sorry Bell I don’t buy it and the money you are raking in for slower “Ultra fast internet” makes me very tense cause I know my bill and mu other son from off Island says my “Ultra fast Internet is slower than his slow time from his provider just across the straight….. If there was a more affordable dependable option I would be gone so fast….It’s an open field anyone interested in doing it. I am not techy/savey enough to pretend to know what is really needed I just know what I am Not getting Friends in northern parts of Canada get better internet connection.
Thanks for mentioning it I appreciate knowing I am not the only frustrated Island resident.

I hear you..There should be one standard. Bell is a big company who makes a lot of money. If they don’t see profit, they will not provide the service. When they run the Fibre line right by your house and not provide the service is a insult. I spoke to a Bell Tech and he stated that the cost is not the factor to put a few Tedders along Rattenbury Road. He said that it would take work away from the Techs that are always called out to repair DSL. I believe one of our MLAs is living in the Subdivision that Bell is providing Fibre to. No complaint there.

The “Up To” clause means nothing. At times we are as low as .2Mbps. Never have I seen 1.5Mbps. I have the speed test documentation to back up this statement. Not only are residents looking for internet that is reliable and reasonably priced but package deals including phone, TV, and security. These are not available with the satellite systems. Government needs to listen to residents and their needs.

I too have never seen 1.5 MBs, and have 25 + Aliant speed tests to prove it. Have provided to them, but no response. Even had a tech (one of at least 10) that wouldn’t even come into my house. Said he could tell from the condition of the wires in the box that he couldn’t change anything. They are a monopoly now, but hopefully better times are coming.

I have been down this road for the past 18 years in Martinvale PEI……only truth receive from Bell Aliant was from their ” Linesmen or Technicians ” in their trucks coming to your door……..Its all about not installing the proper cable because they will not spend the money ,,,,,,,,The sent one of their legal beagles to the Legislature on CBC and said ” its all about Profit ” so with poor service and not at the High speed and paying for High Speed its all about compteition and they have none at the moment in our area…..If we had it , I would drop this ” Greedy company in a heart beat “.., I have compiled a log that I could go to court over……..but due to the lack of honest brokers on PEI life is to short..Bring in East Link and away we go……….they are slick they are sly and they are not honest in their dealings and have nailed the province on a ” sweet heart deal of $ 23,000,000 up from the original $ 8, 000,000 and feel no remorse and pulled the wool over the Liberal Government who could not even sign a contract that made sense………Unbelievable……….so its like we should be charged the percentage of our bill based on their lack of high speed so at 30 percent is fine and then the Government says they are going to send out their staff to check for themselves and they started this and stopped because they found out worse………….its unbelievable this Government we have and how they link up with the graft and fall for it……..thanks for the space …………..

The Politicians were supposed to address these issue decades ago but the backroom deals the Province continues to make with Bell are a suspected impediment to the delivery of any real internet speed equality. As a comparison take power – you don’t have different power service to rural areas because it is deemed an essential service by Government. So now is Real HIgh Speed Internet service in this global world. Politicians dragging their heels as usual.

My Internet is getting worse each day. It’s bad enough it is slow but I also loose my connection about 20 to 40 times daily. Bell Aliant tells me that there is not much they can do besides monitor my line. This is crazy for this day and age. 3rd World countries get better Internet than we do. I can not believe that we have to put up with this service. Something has got to be done.